The Trials and Tribulations of African American Students in an Urban Educational Setting: A Case Study Analysis of a School Social Worker’s Perceptions  

Jacquelyn Monroe, Ph.D.  

Abstract:  Widespread academic achievement for African American students in high school settings remains a challenge in urban public school systems. The reasons for these challenges are broad and complex. School social workers, however, are one of the many educational professionals who are trained to address school and non-school issues for African American students. These professionals, nonetheless, must begin to play a more active role in addressing the challenges and barriers that many African American students face inside and outside of the classroom. Using a school social worker in an urban high school setting as a case study, the perceptions of the challenges and barriers of African American students are explored from an ecological perspective. Using Bronfenbrenner’s ecological perspective as a guide for data analysis, the results of this case study reveal that African American students face challenges and barriers due to a poor person-in-environment fit with those involved in their daily lives (e.g., parents, teachers, and peers); societal infrastructures (e.g., the community and the school); and larger cultural influences (e.g., society-at-large). Building on these findings, the researcher offers suggestions to school social workers about what they can do to promote and sustain academic achievement of ninth through twelfth grade (9th – 12th) African American students in urban school settings.           

Introduction  

According to Eli Broad, a billionaire philanthropist and product of Detroit Public Schools, K-12 public education in urban areas is the biggest problem facing America today (“Mogul Offers Reward for Urban School Improvement,” 2002, p.11A), because of the lack of success of many of its students of color (Ladson-Billings & Gomez, 2001).  This may explain, in part, why American high school students as a whole continue to, academically, lag far behind their counterparts from other developed countries (Bronfenbrenner & Evans, 2000), and why African Americans tend to lag even further (Ogbu, 1992; 1994). Walter Williams, a very outspoken critic of public education in the United States, propagates that “public education for Blacks is a disgraceful disaster” (Williams, 2004b, p.25). He also asserts that the average African American high school graduate “has an academic achievement level [based on proficiency scores] on par with that of an average White seventh-grader” (Williams, 2004a, p. 19). Although many scholars do not agree with Williams’ claims, the fact that a gap in academic achievement exists between Black and White students is irrefutable (Ogbu, 1994).   

Reasons for this gap are diverse and have been attributed to many factors, which include  a lack of motivation on the student’s part (Newman, Myers, Newman, Lohman, & Smith, 2000); adolescent drug use (Marsiglia, Holleran, & Jackson, 2000); the missing Black parent (“Gap Shrinkages,” 2004; Viadero, 1995; Winquist Nord & West, 2001); poverty (Ogbu, 1994; Robinson, as cited in Ford, 2003; Valentine, 2003); a lack of educational resources in the home (“Survey Challenges Notions,…”, 2002); inept and/or biased teachers (Ford & Grantham, 2003; Ford, Harris, Tyson, & Trotman, 2000; Slaughter-Defoe & Rubin, 2001); biased standardized tests (Ford & Grantham, 2003; Ford, Harris, Tyson & Trotman, 2000; Grantham & Ford, 2003), corrupt school boards (Archer, 2004; Chambers, 2002/2003);  a racist educational system (“ED:  N.C. District Unfairly Disciplined Black Students,” 2000; Ogbu, 1994; Ogbu & Simons, 1998; Spencer, 1998; Tanemura Morelli & Spencer, 2000); and community forces (“the group’s cultural models and the coping responses the models generate, the degree of the group’s trust in the White-controlled school systems, and its culturally sanctioned beliefs about cultural and language differences” [Ogbu, 1992, p.292]).  

Ogbu (1992) contended that the difficulties that African American students face in the classroom are due to a combination of all of these factors and many others. For example, Ogbu (1994) found that, when race and class were controlled, Black students still lagged behind their White counterparts on a consistent basis. This reiterates the fact that the issues that resonate most in the education of the African American student are complex and multidimensional.  Singling out one of these factors is inadequate considering the depth of the differences in the academic performances between African American and White students, especially in the area of mathematics achievement, which Ladson-Billings (1997) points out has profound implications for economic opportunities. School social workers, however, are equipped with the tools to address some of these issues.  

Although not as prevalent in the state of Ohio as other states across the United States with widespread reciprocity statutes like Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Utah, and Washington (Jonson-Reid & Wood, 1999), all social workers who are employed in school settings play a significant role in addressing the psychosocial needs of students. The onus of teaching and trying to figure out the unmet needs of failing students are not just the teacher’s responsibility any longer in many school systems. School social workers, who represent a growing percentage of social workers in the United States, are now charged with intervening with students, parents, teachers, communities, and community agencies to help students successfully progress through the educational pipeline (i.e., elementary, middle, and high schools) (“School Social Workers,” 2004). Educators, who already have the tremendous pressure and the mountainous task of preparing students for proficiency examinations and other standardized testing benchmarks, now have professional social workers to assist them with linking students to services and programs that promote positive outcomes in and out of the classroom (Agresta, 2004).   

The purpose of this article is to discuss the barriers and challenges of 9th – 12th grade African American students in an inner-city high school in Ohio from the perspective of a school social worker. In this case analysis, the researcher sought to investigate a social worker’s perceptions of the barriers and challenges of African Americans students at her school. Using Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) ecological approach as the framework, the researcher postulates that African American students’ lack of academic achievement is closely related to a poor “fit” between the student and the microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, and macrosystem. Moreover, the research questions that guided this research were: (a) What are your  roles and responsibilities as a school social worker?; (b) What are the academic challenges of African American students in your school?; (c) What are the barriers to academic success for African American students in your school?; (d) What can school social workers do to attenuate some of the identified challenges?; and (e) What can school social workers do to attenuate some of the identified barriers?  

School Social Workers  

Like every other porous institution in this country, schools are not immune from racism and classism (Pryor, Sarri, Bombyk & Nikolovska, 1999). Fortunately, there are professionals, such as school social workers, who are trained to develop programs and initiatives to deal with the repercussions of discrimination. More specifically, school social work as a specialized area of clinical practice within the social work profession, is potentially an integral player in ameliorating some of these “isms” in school settings.  Until the 1950s, school social workers worked in school districts to assist schools with meeting the educational needs of students (Agresta, 2004, p. 151; “School Social Workers,” 2004). Today, school social workers’ primary focus is to remove barriers that prevent students from fulfilling their educational potential (Fields, 2004), by addressing any psychosocial issues that may prevent them from meeting this potential (Lee, 1998). Although they embrace other roles and responsibilities, school social workers primarily devote their time and energy to individual counseling, group counseling, and teacher/administrator consultation (Agresta, 2004). Some of these roles and responsibilities include, but are not limited to, crisis intervention, conflict resolution, academic advisement, vocational interest testing, academic scheduling, college advisement, staff training, program development, referrals, parent education, psychometric testing, research, parent consultations, report writing, community outreach, psychosocial assessments (Agresta, 2004), and individualized educational plans. Such variety of services illustrates how these clinicians holistically approach the child by seeking to intervene at the micro (immediate environment), meso (bonding with others), exo (school and the community), and macro (larger cultural influences like society-at-large) system levels.  

Operating out of a holistic paradigm, the school social worker assesses the “whole child” and subsequently intervenes with him or her multidimensionally. In this capacity, school social workers tend to work closely with students, teachers, parents, and the surrounding community in some capacity (School Social Work Association of America, 2003). Recognizing that some children need remedial and other support services to overcome the educational disadvantages of their family’s economic situation (New York Amsterdam News, 2000), school social workers also work to augment existing services offered in the school. For example, many schools offer academic scheduling, college advisement, group counseling, and individual counseling through school counselors (Agresta, 2004). School social workers also partake in some of these roles and responsibilities as some of their non-social work counterparts.  The approach, however, in fulfilling these roles and responsibilities are unique to the profession’s paradigm.   

Theoretical Persuasion  

The ecological perspective focuses on understanding people in the context of the social environment (Bronfenbrenner, 1979).  It also focuses on how people interact or transact with one another and the environment (Galambos, 2003). Like Kurt Lewin’s macro level field theory, which postulates that a person’s behavior is the interactive effect between that individual and the environment (Norlin, Chess, Dale & Smith, 2003; Watt & Moore, 2001), Bronfenbrenner’s ecological perspective on child development focuses on the development of the individual as he or she relates to various systems within the environment (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). This framework places a great deal of emphasis on the dynamics between the person and the environment. Unlike linear-based relationships, transactional relationships refer to those reciprocal exchanges between individuals and elements and how these transactions ultimately change all parties involved over time (Germain, 1991). According to the ecological perspective, the social environment involves all conditions, experiences and human interactions that encompass human beings. This includes one’s dwelling, educational provisions, occupation, access to material goods and wealth, and laws and social rules. The social environment also includes those systems (e.g., individual to governmental) that the individual transacts with (Feldman, 2003). This construct is the basis for determining and evaluating a person’s state of well-being or person-in-environment fit. The person-in-environment fit refers to the degree that one’s environment (e.g., familial, educational, physical, social, spiritual or religious, economical, cultural) match or fit with an individual’s need. Specifically, the ecological perspective stresses: (a) the importance of the role of culture on an individual’s behavior and (b) the necessity of including its impact on the individual in his or her environment (Feldman, 2003).   

As an offshoot of ecology theory, the ecological perspective contends that environmental and individual influences are multidimensional and multidirectional (Feldman, 2003). This means that the environment and other social systems within it tend to impact the individual in multiple ways while at the same time being impacted by that individual in multiple ways. For example, lets examine the case of an 8^th   grade girl who is progressing towards the 9th grade. One morning, during the week of proficiency testing, she witnesses her mother being beaten by her father.  According to the ecological perspective, this event will impact both the child and those around her. Minimally, the child will be affected—academically, socially, and emotionally—by this event. The mother, who is also likely to be devastated by the turn of events in the home, is likely to have concerns for her safety as well as for her child. The mother will also be concerned about the implications (e.g., emotionally, academically, and interpersonally) of the child witnessing the domestic violence. The father is likely to have future interactions with the legal system, school social workers, and potentially the local children services agency.  Additionally, the teachers and social workers who are brought in to deal with this crisis are likely to have concerns related to the child’s mental health, physical safety, and academic performance on the proficiency examination.  They may also visit the child’s home.  In other words, all of the individuals who are involved in this situation are likely to impact it and be impacted by it.  

According to the ecological perspective, individuals can not be viewed as individuals irrespective of their environments. They must be viewed as systems – made of both their experiences and environments (Feldman, 2003). As in the case of the eighth grader just discussed, her score on the proficiency examination is not likely to take into account the domestic violence in her home or the decline in her mental health that resulted from the situation.  This example illustrates how continuing to view students as single systems without considering the role of the social environment can be a dangerous oversight on the part of the educational system.  

Developed by Bronfenbrenner (1979), the ecological perspective is an alternative perspective on human development across the lifespan. Based on this perspective, individuals are best understood in the context of their fit in the environment.  Specifically, this perspective contends that the microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, and the macrosystem impact upon the individual simultaneously (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). The microsystem refers to the immediate environment of an individual, which includes influences by family members, peers, teachers, and caregivers in this environment. The system also processes the behaviors and character of the individual, although this is not the main focus in this system. The mesosystem manifests itself through the bonding that takes place between the individual and members of the microsystem. The exosystem represents broader external influences that have major and immediate impact on the interaction between the micro-and macro systems as well as individual development. These influences include schools, the community, places of worship, local government, and local media. The macrosystem emphasizes the inclusiveness of the larger cultural influences on an individual. This includes, but is not limited to, society-at-large, religious institutions, politics, and government (Bronfenbrenner, 1979; Feldman, 2003).  

Method

Procedure/Sample  

A 60-minute taped interview was conducted with a White, married, 39-year-old, female, school social work professional. The purpose of the interview was to obtain information regarding the participant’s perceptions of the challenges and barriers that African American students experience. The study’s participant was assigned to 3 of the 151 schools in a district that serves 64,175 students in an academic year (U.S. Department of Education, 2004). Although the school social worker has been practicing for the past 15 years in this capacity, she has only been employed at this specific high school for the past two years. Her primary responsibilities include offering crisis (counseling) interventions, facilitating teacher/administration consultations, making linkages and referrals to community agencies, coordinating school-based community collaborations, attending team meetings in the school, conducting home visits, and facilitating treatment groups. She is also one of four school social workers routinely assigned to this high school.  

Data Analysis  

The face-to-face interview was conducted and transcribed by the researcher. Thereafter, the participant was sent a copy of the transcriptions to ensure that all shared thoughts were conveyed as intended. These data were then examined using content analysis. This procedure allows the researcher access to the words of the text or transcribed accounts offered by subjects (Berg, 2004). The rater entered the data in a line by line format.  This technique was followed by data analysis or an interpretation of these data. Driven by constructs from Bronfenbrenner’s ecological perspective, the codes were ultimately subsumed by the assumptions of the following terms:  microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, and macrosystem.  

Results  

The responses from the previously stated research questions were categorized into four themes, which included the intertwining microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, and macrosystem.  They are shown in Figure 1.  

Microsystem  

The first emergent theme related to the microsystem. It refers to the immediate environment of an individual, which is the student in this case and influences by family members, caregivers, neighborhood peers, and teachers (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). Remarks consistent with this theme were related to the student; the students’ parents; peers in the school and neighborhood; high school teachers; the school’s administration; and school social workers. 

The Students  

The 9th – 12th grade students in this inner-city school were characterized in the context of their areas of needed self-improvement as well as strengths. When asked about the academic challenges of African American students, the school social worker pointed out that some of the African American students in her school were suffering from a wide range of mental health problems. As an illustration of the mental health problems of these students, the school social worker stated that: “A lot of the kids that we end up working with have them” [mental health problems]. “I cannot believe that so many of these kids with these extreme issues haven’t had any treatment.”  Examples of mental health problems included “depression, psychosis, trauma…drugs and alcohol.”  She continued with these remarks by saying that: “…a lot of the kids we deal with—when you get down to what’s happening is based on mental health issues...plus a lot of domestic violence—abuse in the home, previous abuse that kids have dealt with or current abuse. All of these things…create, I believe, over the long run, mental health issues that are untreated [which] end up interfering with their ability to do what they need to do in school.”  

Some students were also said to lack organization and confidence. The school social worker stated that: “…what I see a lot of is that kids who really try but may not have the skills to get to a place where they’re organized and motivated to do what they need to do … A lot of times, we are working with them and the teachers—checking up, trying to help them get things organized...” In addition she stated that she tells students: “You make these choices, this is what can happen. You make this choice, this is what can happen...even though they,….hear what you are saying, they talk to you about it; they come up with plans that fizzle real quick and then you are back to square one with them again.” In addition to lacking organization, these students were also said to lack confidence. She stated: “I think that it goes back to just the whole idea that I really think that some of these kids just don’t feel like they can actually do it. So they give up a lot.  Quickly.”  She also stated that: “I feel like lots of the kids that we work with don’t have the confidence that they can succeed. They don’t come in ‘shining’ and they have some failure—it seems to build and build…it’s really hard to overcome and help them see that they can succeed and that they are capable.”  

Despite the previously stated shortcomings, many of these students were characterized as being motivated, resilient, having a desire to graduate, and wanting to be successful. The school social worker noted: “…there are some kids that I see who are incredibly resilient who have gone through all kinds of life situations and issues but are motivated…I see that there is a lot of desire with the kids…I think that they really want to succeed. They want to graduate.”    

Microsystem Influences  

In this study, microsystem influences included parents, peers, teachers, school administrators, and school social workers. The school social worker talked about the influences of these various microsystems in detail during the interview. Because of its overlap with the discussion on the mesosystem, however, this discussion is elaborated upon in the discussion of the mesosystem.  

Mesosystem  

The mesosystem manifests itself through the bonding that takes place between the individual and members of the microsystem (Feldman, 2003). It is a system of microsystems (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). Interpersonal relationships with parents, peers, teachers, school administrators, and school social workers were all identified by the school social worker in explaining the plight of the African American student in this predominately African American high school. Parental influences, especially the bonding with parental figures, were reported as mixed. The school social worker stated that some of the students in this school lacked parental support and supervision, while others were said to have the support of their parents  For the most part, nonetheless, parental support was weak or completely absent in many cases. For example, she stated: “…a lot of these kids are mobile.  They live between other family members and friends…so many of them are almost on their own and have to provide for themselves and take care of themselves, which is tough.”  She also stated that parents, as a whole, were not very involved with their children academically and that “overall school parent involvement…needs to improve.”   

Bonding with school peers was stronger and more evident. Aligned with this notion, the school social worker indicated that “I think that they are very supportive of each other. I think that a lot of the kids know what is happening with the other kids. Oftentimes, they’ll come to us and say, ‘This kid needs help.’  There are some cliques, but I think that there is a sense of some kind of community with the kids.”  Peer relationships were not as strong or positive in the neighborhood. Students oftentimes reported: “gang related fighting in the neighborhood,” and being “up until 3 o’clock in the morning because of shootings and fighting.”  

Comments related to the influences of and the bonding with White teachers in the school was the most striking out of the five microsystems previously identified. Essentially, this school social worker articulated that White teachers who are ill-disposed toward the academic capabilities of African American students do a grave disservice to African American students and ultimately the communities in which they reside.  Aligned with this notion, she stated: “I don’t think that if you sat down and asked them [some White teachers at this school] if they were being racist, they would say, ‘Yes, I am,’ but I look at them as rotten teachers…they way that they [dis]respect—deal with the kids is not conducive to kids feeling good about themselves.”  She stated that most of the teachers employed by her school live in suburban communities and some had “…all kinds of preconceived notions about what these guys can achieve.”  She conceded by saying: “In my mind, I guess that is racism.”  Students in this school, however, were astute and realized this. She reported that, “I think that the kids can see through people pretty easily and they know who they can trust and who they can’t trust....the kids can pinpoint the problem teachers very easily….kids can see which of those teachers are there because they believe in who these guys are versus…those who do it just because it is a job.” She also noted that some of the teaching staff members were really committed and invested in helping students to succeed. These individuals were characterized as being incredibly committed and wise enough to factor in the student’s environmental influences while assessing their overall capabilities. The students who did not operate from this culturally sensitive framework were the students seen as most problematic for this school social worker.   

School administrators, especially the principal, were positively regarded by the school social worker in the context of bonding with and influencing the students. Three out of four of these individuals were African Americans. All of these administrators, nonetheless, were said to be very inviting. They were said to “believe in these kids and they believe in what they can do and they promote that. I think they’re very holistic in how they look at the kids.  They are smart in how they look at programming and what they offer these kids to help them succeed. It is not a situation where we know you have a problem—you are out.  It’s like, you have a problem, lets see what we can do to help you with this problem and get you what you need so that you can succeed….I think this team of administrators is really good…The expectation is high for the kids but behind the high expectations is the belief that they can do it.”  Keeping in tandem with their philosophy, she reported that “the administration has done a nice job of weeding some of the teachers out that don’t philosophically adhere to how they want the building to run.” Overall, she felt that most of the students in the school really had respect for the administrators and can see what they were trying to do for the students.  

The last microsystem to be identified was the school social worker. The participant felt that she and her full-time counterpart, a White male school social worker, were well received by the students in this school because students had come to know them very well. However, she did note that African American social workers should be sought out and hired to work at this school after observing the effectiveness of a particular African American social work intern. The school social worker noted that this particular African American female social work intern “provided a different sort of role model” for the students and that her co-facilitation of a treatment group in the school made a significant contribution to the climate of the group. This particular student’s presence, which was believed to be heavily swayed by her African American heritage was said to offer something to the school social work staff that only an African American could—that ethnic commonality with the student.    

Exosystem  

The exosystem represents broader external influences that have a major and immediate impact on the interaction between the micro and macro systems as well as individual development (Feldman, 2003). This system does not involve the active participation of the developing individual, but what goes on in this system invariably impacts this individual (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). These influences include the community, places of worship, local government, and local media (Feldman, 2003). In this study, broader influences included the actions and requirements of the local governing board of education as they relate to proficiency testing and the community’s role. These broader influences were the result of an inquiry into the barriers to academic success for African American students. Proficiency testing, which is a requirement in all public schools in this system, was considered a major barrier to success for African American students in this school. The school social worker interviewed in this study detested proficiency testing because she argued that it is not culturally sensitive, nor is it an accurate “qualifier for how intelligent or how capable a person is.” She complained that it does not take “into account who you are dealing with or what you need to do to help kids be successful. It’s just a test.” Her comments were in direct response to the poor performances of many African American students on these tests in her school as well as elementary schools, middle schools, and other high schools in this district.  

The community was also mentioned as an exosystem. Admittedly, this school social worker rarely worked with the local community outside some of the local agencies for social services because of re-occurring crisis situations in the school. She felt, however, that the school was an ideal “cornerstone” or “starting point” for the mobilization of the community. She felt that the community was an important, although completely absent, part of the educational system in the African American community.  

Macrosystem  

The macrosystem emphasizes the inclusiveness and consistencies of the larger cultural influences on lower level systems (e.g., micro, meso, and exo) (Bronfenbrenner, 1979). This includes, but is not limited to, society-at-large, religious institutions, politics, and government (Feldman, 2003). In this study, negative societal attitudes toward African Americans and the devastating effects of structural poverty were most pronounced. Negative societal attitudes toward children who grow up in urban settings were attributed to the poor condition of many urban schools’ physical facilities. The school social worker concluded that poorly kept school buildings send out very negative and disempowering messages to students and teachers in urban school settings. Her views were illustrated when she made the stark comparison between the inner city high school she worked in and the newly built high school in her suburban community. She described the inner-city high school that she worked in as being “always very hot” even in the winter because the building is not “climate controlled.”  The building was also said to be “100 years old” and “falling apart.”  Moreover, she stated; “When you are walking into a school like that, how do you value whether or not you are valued?” In contrast, she concluded that the level of respect and regard for the student and the teacher is evident when an individual walks into a suburban school where the facility is well-manicured and equipped with the “best and latest of everything available” to the student and teacher.   

The role of structural “isms” and the resulting impoverishment of African American students were mentioned on numerous occasions in this study. Starting at the most basic level, many students were reportedly without food on a regular basis and as a result attended school hungry. Some were even homeless and/or living between relatives and friends as previously mentioned. Still others were without an adequate supply of clothing. Realizing that students, even at the high school level cannot concentrate on academics when they are hungry, school social workers offer snacks to students needing food before lunch. Some are also provided with basic clothing items through the generosity of a local clothing store. Permanent and independent housing, a more costly and difficult challenge to resolve because of the age and dependency status of the typical student, is oftentimes addressed after other barriers are first attended to.  

In terms of education, directly, the school social worker stated that, “I don’t believe the kids that I work with are offered the same opportunities for a multitude of reasons as a student who is more well to do...From the very beginning, I think there’s a difference.” She went on to say that the challenges of African American high school students begin before the child ever enters kindergarten. She states: “I think that by the time they get into kindergarten, we are already playing catch up with these kids—a lot of these kids.…even with Head Start…. you are not changing what’s created that situation when they move into kindergarten. So, the school systems are at a loss in a weird way because they are fighting that… the entire time that the kid is being educated.” Then, she concluded, “We are just putting band-aids on versus dealing with the infection.”  

Limitations of the Study and Recommendations for Future Research  

Individual interviews have been found to lead to the increased likelihood of disclosure of potentially very sensitive matter over focus group participation (Kaplowitz, 2000) as evidenced in this study.  This single-case analysis, however, offers only a single perspective on the barriers and challenges of African American students in grades 9-12 in an urban educational setting. This limits its generalizability to similar subjects in similar environments. Any similarities in experiences to other school social workers in urban educational settings are coincidental. A more comprehensive study would include a larger sample of school social workers in urban high school settings. A single-case analysis, however, can result in data that are rich in content. The data used in this study have much to offer in a beginning way (i.e., instrument development, serving as a pilot study, an expansive qualitative study) to educational organizations wanting to improve their approach to improving the academic success of 9th – 12th grade African American students in urban settings.  

Implications for School Social Workers  

Based on these findings and comments from the school social worker when asked what can school social workers do to attenuate some of the identified challenges and barriers of African American students, the researcher concludes that African American students in this predominately African American high school are in need of basic essentials as well as continued support from parental figures, teachers, peers, school administrators, social workers, and community people. As change agents who operate on a variety of levels, social workers are in an ideal position to facilitate change in several arenas. They must have the support and backing of school districts, however. This support and backing should come in the form of: (a) hiring more school social workers overall; (b) hiring at least one fulltime school social worker per school versus hiring a fulltime social worker and subsequently assigning him or her to 2-3 schools at a time, which essentially results in a part-time school social worker at each of the schools; and (c) encouraging and fostering substantive relationships between students’ families, the community, and the school by the school social worker.   

A timid approach in addressing the psychosocial and educational needs of African American students in urban settings only hurts the 9th – 12th grade student and his or her family.  Specifically, failing to work as a strong advocate for poor and underachieving African American students in urban settings only serves to perpetuate the misconceptions surrounding their potential for academic success. Although not always easy to facilitate, it is important that school social workers work even harder at keeping the dialogue alive between teachers and human service workers. Collaboration between these professionals is critical if the balance between a student’s educational needs and psychosocial needs is to be achieved (Lee, 1998). Addressing a student’s psychosocial needs in the context of their educational needs allows the social work professional to enhance protective factors for the student.  

Because the empirical literature consistently acknowledges the influence of teachers on a student’s academic success, it is essential that teachers be made aware of and/or sanctioned if they appear to be disinterested in students, biased, or negative towards them. As illustrated in Pryor’s et al. (1999) research, students look toward the school for leadership and support, especially in the teacher who is granted power and authority in the classroom (Ladson-Billings, 1996). When this does not happen, they are affected psychosocially and academically. In tandem with the ecological perspective’s mesosystem concept, these primary relationships are important and need to be fostered. This then requires that urban schools work even harder to demand that White teachers become more culturally sensitive and supportive of ethnic minority students.  Ogbu and Simons (1998) recommend that teachers work tirelessly to build trust so that students can believe in the system and them as role models and educators. These schools need to also recruit and retain a more ethnically diverse teaching staff.  This includes increasing the number of ethnic minority teachers (Ford & Trotman, 2001), especially African Americans in predominately African American school districts (Lewis, in press). Currently, roughly 15% of three million public school teachers are people of color (Gap Shrinkers, 2004). The remaining 85% of teachers are White educators (Ford & Trotman, 2001). This is alarming considering that 35% of the public school student body is made up of students of color (Gap Shrinkers, 2004).   

The need to work closely with principals is also evident. School social workers must continue to help principals help students meet performance measures (Franklin, 2000).  The school social worker investigated in this case worked very closely with the principal at her school and spoke highly of the school’s overall administration. Accolades were espoused because of the administration’s “holistic approach” to students and education. As a proponent of a well-rounded and holistic educational setting, the school social worker in this case demonstrated the necessity to work as a team in supporting and fostering a nurturing environment for the student.  She also attributed the administration’s success to a “top-down” philosophy.  In the case of this particular high school, this refers to a management approach that mandates all school employees to subscribe to policies and protocol that will address the student’s needs in a holistic and individualistic manner.  This approach, the school social worker felt, conveys to the student that he or she is truly valued and respected as an individual. Exceptions to this philosophy in spirit and actions, however, were still festering among some teaching personnel in the school under investigation, but the overall climate was starting to “improve.”   

School social workers must also increase their involvement with students’ families and their communities. Very few schools build partnerships with families in the surrounding Black communities on a regular and aggressive basis (Ford, Harris, Tyson & Trotman, 2000).  The literature consistently reports that the family is an integral part of the Black student’s educational success (Flowers, Milner, & Moore, 2003). At this juncture, many school social workers work with their school’s surrounding community in the context of linkages, referrals, and in-house collaborations (e.g., the provision of space for community agencies to come into the school to offer their services to students) because many simply “don’t have time to do neighborhood development or community work” according to the school social worker interviewed in this study.  However, it is crucial that these social workers take a more active role in strengthening alliances with community-based organizations and groups (e.g., parent organizations, family literacy programs, etc.) in an effort to effect needed change at the exosystem or community level as contended by the findings from this research and other researchers.  According to Pryor et al. (1999), community outreach is essential if a school is serious about impacting major changes in the system. Agresta (2004) found, however, that social workers ranked community outreach as 20 out of 21 professional roles that they actually and would ideally devote their time to. Social workers in their study spent about 7.69% of their actual time conducting community outreach, and felt that only 7.90% of their time in this arena was ideal. This strongly suggests that social workers are not investing a lot of time and effort into community outreach nor do they have a strong desire to do so either. School social workers’ lack of interest in community outreach is consistent with most social workers’ preferences for work responsibilities irrespective of the setting. Across the board, very few social workers show any real interest in working with communities and grass-roots organizations. Macro level approaches to social work practice take an inordinate amount of time and effort to bring about real structural changes. Therefore, it is understandable that social workers would want to work at the micro and meso levels because one’s impact on a client’s life is much more apparent when facilitated at these levels. Nonetheless, the lack of interest in community outreach by school social workers only serves to perpetuate the myth that this type of collaboration is not as important as the counseling (individual and group) and teacher/administration consultations that school social workers primarily engage in.  

Discussion  

A core assumption of the ecological perspective is that improved individual functioning requires that an environment fosters and sustains change (Mishna & Muskat, 2004). A country that allows itself to become complacent with the intellectual failure of a select group of its young people is a country guilty of intellectual castration. In the case of the African American student in the urban setting, positive and supportive changes in the educational and psychosocial environments are critical.  If social work as a profession and school social workers, in particular, are to fulfill their mission in promoting justice, they must not become complacent with the inequalities that continue to plague African American students and their families. School social workers in urban settings must step forth and start to mobilize surrounding communities and parent groups of African American children. Unlike mainstream society who continues to play the “blame game,” school social workers must work to attenuate the barriers to academic excellence of African American students.  

A strong proponent of education, Colin Powell asserts that, “a good education is indispensable to a young man or woman of any ethnic background. It is so very important for African Americans because we still start the game with a strike or two against us. We cannot afford to neglect any field of education or any effort at education. We’ve got to convince kids to stay in school. We’ve got to convince parents to get involved with schools” (Powell, 1991, p.119). Powell’s remarks illustrate how a solid and lasting interpersonal relationship with students on the part of parents, educators, school administrators including school social workers, and community systems is so very important at every level—from the micro to the macro levels. Although an education is not a guarantee for economic success in this country, it is oftentimes a way out of negative life situations (Bateman & Kennedy, 1997). As a result, schools must deliberately work to become culturally responsive institutions. According to Lee (2001), a culturally responsive school is not overwhelmingly Black, White, nor Asian in its orientation.  Instead, its curriculum is simply people-centered. This ideal school would also celebrate many cultures throughout the year and not during designated months of the year. Identical standards would be set for all students as well. The school would exude a sense of “community;” all people would be included.  Racial tension would be confronted rather than ignored. Minority teachers would be heavily recruited and retained; all educators would be mandated to be culturally competent and sensitive. Last, but certainly not least, the family would be encouraged and highly involved in the academic success of the student.  

About the Author:  Dr. Jacquelyn Monroe is an assistant professor in the College of Social Work at The Ohio State University.  Her scholarly interests include work in two primary areas - substance abuse and social work practice/education.  Dr. Monroe’s research in these areas primarily center on inequity, marginalization, and oppression.  Please address correspondence to the author at The Ohio State University, College of Social Work, 225B Stillman Hall, 1947 College Road, Columbus, OH 43210-1162 USA; e-mail monroe.998@osu.edu.                 

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